US strikes serve ‘goals of terrorism’, says governor of Syria’s Homs

US President Donald Trump ordered missile strikes against a Syrian airfield from which a deadly chemical weapons attack was launched this week. Homs governor Talal Barazi said the US missile strike is not believed to have caused ‘big human casualties’.

US Navy guided-missile destroyer USS Porter conducts strike operations in the Mediterranean Sea which the Defense Department said was a part of cruise missile strike against Syria.(REUTERS)

The US missile strikes on Syrian military positions serve the goals of “armed terrorist groups” and the Islamic State, the governor of Syria’s Homs province said on Friday.

“Syrian leadership and Syrian policy will not change,” Homs governor Talal Barazi said in a phone interview with state television. “This targeting was not the first and I don’t believe it will be the last,” he added.

US President Donald Trump said he ordered missile strikes against a Syrian airfield from which a deadly chemical weapons attack was launched this week, declaring he acted in America’s “national security interest” against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

US officials said the military fired dozens of cruise missiles against the airbase in response to the suspected gas attack in a rebel-held area that Washington has blamed on Assad’s forces.

The Syrian government has strongly denied responsibility.

Homs governor Talal al-Barazi said the US missile strike is not believed to have caused ‘big human casualties’.
(Reuters File)

“The armed terrorist groups and Daesh failed to target the Syrian Arab Army and Russian military positions,” Barazi said, using the Arabic acronym for Islamic State.

The Syrian government describes all armed groups opposed to it as terrorists.

The US strikes “targeted military positions in Syria and in Homs specifically” in order to publically “serve the goals of terrorism in Syria and the goals of Israel in the long run,” Barazi added.

A Syrian military source said earlier the attack on the Syrian air base had led to “losses.”

Barazi later told Reuters the US missile strike is not believed to have caused “big human casualties” but has caused material damage.

“I believe - God willing - that the human casualties are not big, but there is material damage. We hope there are not many victims and martyrs,” he said by telephone.

He said rescue and fire-fighting operations had been going on for two hours.